MATCH PROCESS

[Dr. MAXY]

I know this is kinda too early. I don't start med school till this August, but I want to know this ahead of time. During the residency match process, how many specialities can you choose. Does it have to be just one speciality or you can have more than one.
Replies will be appeciated.

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[migraineboy]

You can apply to as many areas of medicine as you want. I interviewed with several individuals this past years who were applying for radiology with anesthesiology as a back-up.

 

[NuMD97]

Just be careful on the interview trail if you apply for several specialties at the same hospital. I remember being interviewed at one hospital that happened to have offices that several specialties shared and the Program Coordinator told me that her department was "not pleased" when they noticed that some candidate who they had interviewed earlier was now back at the same hospital interviewing in another specialty. They took it to mean that the person was not serious about his goals in that first specialty. The reality is that some fields are just very competitive and to assure that you match, people just apply to several fields that they have interests in.

It never hurts to look a bit down the road for what lies ahead. Good luck to you.

 

[NuMD97]

Just be careful on the interview trail if you apply for several specialties at the same hospital. I remember being interviewed at one hospital that happened to have offices that several specialties shared and the Program Coordinator told me that her department was "not pleased" when they noticed that some candidate who they had interviewed earlier was now back at the same hospital interviewing in another specialty. They took it to mean that the person was not serious about his goals in that first specialty. The reality is that some fields are just very competitive and to assure that you match, people just apply to several fields that they have interests in.

It never hurts to look a bit down the road for what lies ahead. Good luck to you.

 

[Freeeedom!]

I would not see it as a "plus" if a student applied to two seperate fields during the match... unless you are obviously applying for pre-lim medicine and then a PGY-2 program (ie 2-4 EM, rads, PM&R).

 

[Sevo]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Freeeedom!:
•I would not see it as a "plus" if a student applied to two seperate fields during the match... unless you are obviously applying for pre-lim medicine and then a PGY-2 program (ie 2-4 EM, rads, PM&R).•••••It's pretty common in ultra-competitive fields like derm.

 

[Sevo]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Dr. MAXY:
•I know this is kinda too early. I don't start med school till this August, but I want to know this ahead of time. During the residency match process, how many specialities can you choose. Does it have to be just one speciality or you can have more than one.
Replies will be appeciated.•••••You can apply to as many specialities in the main NRMP match as you want. I'm not sure what the deal is with the San Francisco match.

As other have said, lots of program directors do look down on applicants applying to more than one field. However, it's fairly common for students applying to highly competitive fields like dermatology to interview for a few categorical medicine spots; likewise, for students interested in ortho to have one or two gen surg interviews lined up.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Freeeedom!:
•I would not see it as a "plus" if a student applied to two seperate fields during the match... unless you are obviously applying for pre-lim medicine and then a PGY-2 program (ie 2-4 EM, rads, PM&R).•••••What does "preliminary" mean? I have noticed on some schools' match lists that some residencies are preliminary while others are not (such as some getting into IM prelim and others just IM).

 

[dankatzzz]

Prelim year means a one year position. This is required in many specialties like Anesthesiology, Radiology, Opthamology, etc...Usually, you have a choice of prelim in medicine or surgery. Most people choose medicine.